Aurora Stella Valentinetti, known to her family as Zizi LaLa, passed away on July 22, 2022, She was a skilled stage performer and the university puppetry professor from the early forties to her retirement in 1992.

Through her career, Aurora was able to successfully work in four separate, yet closely related, fields as a professional singer, puppeteer, director of community theaters and their allied activities, and professor of speech, children’s theater and puppetry at the University of Washington. Her legacy as an educator was acknowledged when she was the recipient of the 2018

Distinguished Teaching Legacy Award which recognizes UW teachers who inspired and influenced their students both in and out of the classroom. Her puppeteering legacy continues, where much of her collection of puppets are on display at the Aurora Valentinetti Puppet Museum in Bremerton, WA.

You can access her full obituary here.